Sunday, 11 November 2012

Nice One...

'Dagenham',

Jock MacFadyen, oil on canvas, 152x 270cms,

I liked this I came across
by art writer Karen Wright's account
of her studio visit with the painter Jock McFadyen:

Jock McFadyen’s East End
studio is infused with the heady perfume of paint and turps. Painting, now
seemingly the least fashionable of arts, is literally getting up my nose here.
When I ask McFadyen if he minds practising the art form seemingly not at the forefront
of chic curating, his defence is instantaneous and robust: “The great thing
about painting is that it’s not fashionable.”

I ask if he always
wanted to be an artist, and his response illuminates the current divide in art.
“I don’t want to be an artist. I want to be a painter. The man in the street
might think you make art out of dirt and string. It is embarrassing to be an
artist.”